At Climatizacion 2017, Panasonic held a conference to reveal two particular innovations. The first of these is variable refrigerant flow (VRF) smart connectivity, the result of an alliance between Schneider and Panasonic, and the second is the application of Light ID technology in Panasonic air conditioners. Panasonic representatives including Takuma Sawada, director, Air-conditioner Marketing Center, Consumer Marketing Division, Appliances Company of Panasonic, and Enrique Vilamitjana, COO of Panasonic Appliances Air-Conditioning Europe, attended the conference to introduce these products and the company’s business strategy in Europe.

Panasonic, technology leader in VRF systems, and Schneider Electric, a leader in building energy management system (BEMS), have joined forces to offer an innovative solution for excellent energy management and maximized comfort. The result of this alliance is a new, simple control interface to install and integrate in BEMS without the need for intermediate gateways and minimizing the integration project. Fully integrated control of the Panasonic ECOi range can be achieved via cable and without gateways to the indoor unit or via wireless technology using the ZigBee wireless communication standard. The same control interface, which can function perfectly as an isolated unit, has a BACnet output as standard. The unit, featuring a backlit display, is tactile and customizable; it has a temperature and relative humidity sensor with 20 selectable languages, and can be connected to different sensors wirelessly: wall, ceiling, door/open or closed CO2 sensor.